Agency chief dismisses White House claims

Donald Trump branded ousted FBI chief James Comey a “showboat” yesterday, an attack that was swiftly contradicted by the agency’s acting chief who pledged the FBI’s probe into possible ties to Russia would proceed with vigour. Trump, facing Democratic accusations that he fired Comey on Tuesday to hinder the FBI investigation into alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 US presidential election, said he would have taken the action even without a recommendation to do so by the two top US Justice Department officials. That ran counter to previous administration explanations of Comey’s dismissal, underlining the White House’s difficulty in settling on a story. Trump also gave further details of his account that Comey informed him three times that he was not under investigation. His personal attack on Comey seemed designed to underline that the dismissal was about Comey’s performance — and not a probe that has hung over Trump’s presidency since he took office. In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, testifying in place of Comey, promised to tell the panel of any White House meddling into the agency's probe. Democrats have called for a special prosecutor to look into the Russia matter. “I can tell you also that Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day,” McCabe said. — Herald with Reuters